How much to feed pacu?

[duanes]

Pacu are basically tetras, more closely related to Piranhas than cichlids, and although omnivores, tend to be more vegetarian in nature, eating fallen fruits and seeds.
A friend had a few in a 10,000 gal tank that used to love bananas.

 

[C. Breeze]

I’d love to see pictures of your setup. Those are Defintely grown out pacus
They’re tetras, it’ll be tough to keep nitrates down and keep hogs like that fed in most scenarios

 

[FJB]

They are certainly mostly vegetarians (and a little of everything else), so frozen veggies is good, potentially miixed with any of a number of animal protein (insect or worm). Grapes are good a treat, but not as a staple food, as they are mostly water, some cellulose and very little else.

 

[fishguy1978]

I would say you should be able to feed two families of 5 each off that size pacu.

 

[pacu mom]

My nitrates are always so bad and my pacu are kinda fat

High nitrates - you need to up the frequency and amount of water changes to keep nitrates low. A larger tank could help with the nitrates--dilution of the pollution. Feeding them several times a week instead of daily could also help. Keep in mind that pacu are extremely messy eaters. Feeding table food tends to foul up the water a lot more than feeding a veggie/algae wafer that is inhaled without chewing.

BTW, pacu are characins.

 

[Deadeye]

Pacus are part of the serrasalmidae family, which includes piranhas, silver dollars, and pacus.

 

[bridget1476]

UPDATE: I was a dumbass and didn't know my boyfriend has also been feeding them. they get about 3 grapes each and one piece of lettace in the morning. In the evening they get a good chunk of frozen (homade using king of diy's recipie(re doing the recipie to include more greens)) and 2 algae wafers each (fav food)

Got the nitrates under control by feeding less messy food (bananas) and not by feeding less